1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of reporting statistical data pertaining to multiple sources and events. More specifically, the present invention relates to the generation of management reports relating to the performance of related devices or entities, whose identity and relationship may change over time.
2. The Related Art
Network management reporting systems exist as relational databases to generate reports relating to multiple sources and events. The known systems allow the information pertaining to the multiple sources and events to be sorted or filtered based on a variety of criteria.
A problem that exists for these network management reporting systems is that the data pertaining to the identity of the sources may be incomplete or may change from time to time requiring the network management reporting program to be changed. Such changes may require extensive reprogramming to accommodate changes in the underlying data and extensive revision of report procedures and changes in computer programming code.
Another problem associated with network management reporting systems is that adding additional sources also may require changes in programming. Another problem of network management reporting systems is that in order to obtain custom reports, changes must be made in the programming of the report procedures to select new criteria and to enable sorting and filtering based upon these new criteria.
Programming changes are either time consuming to the database user (thereby creating an environment in which the currency or completeness of the underlying data may be questionable), or beyond the capability of typical end-user who simply wants report results. Unless the network management reporting system data can be kept up to date and complete without undue time and expense, its value as a real time or contemporaneous reporting system is severely limited.